The Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation
(CCEF) is located in Glenside, Pennsylvania and is
connected to Westminster Theological Seminary in
Philadelphia. We were told recently that CCEF is involved
in third party (insurance) payments for counseling done
under Ed Welch, a licensed psychologist who is the CCEF
director of counseling services. We wrote to Welch and
asked him if what we heard is true. He wrote back but
refused to answer our question. We then faxed him a
letter and explained that we wanted to be accurate in
what we wrote. To date he has not responded.

We then asked someone in the CCEF area to obtain the
information. The individual called and received a letter
from CCEF. The following is a quote from the letter,
which is apparently sent to anyone who asks:

Does CCEF qualify for insurance payment?

In todays changing health insurance climate,
the answer to this question can change monthly. As a
general rule, our counseling services are covered by
some but not all insurance plans. Blue Cross-Blue
Shield, Employee Assistance Programs, and a number of
private insurers have often reimbursed those seeking
help at CCEF. HMOs, however, typically do not
use CCEF as a designated provider.

You should check with your own insurance company
to see if you should be reimbursed. Be sure to let
them know that CCEF counseling is done under the
supervision of a licensed psychologist but is not
always done by a licensed psychologist.

If you qualify for coverage, we would be glad to
do everything possible to help you submit the proper
information to your carrier. However, you will be
expected to make payment at the time of your session
and have your insurance company reimburse you.

We have called several national insurance companies
and asked if biblical counseling is covered under any of
their plans. In each instance, we were told no. We do not
pretend to know what all insurance companies do, but we
were told by the insurance companies we called that a
diagnosis is required before counseling can begin. The
diagnosis is required to be from the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The DSM
contains a list of mental disorders that are used to
psychologically label individuals for psychiatric and
psychological treatment.

There is a whole host of questions that individuals
should be interested in having answered. And, because
CCEF is a Christian nonprofit agency, it should be open
to answering. For example, which insurance companies are
involved? Do these insurance companies cover biblical
counseling? Do the insurance companies involved in
reimbursing CCEF clients require a DSM label? Has Welch
used the DSM to psychologically label clients in order to
qualify for insurance payments? What do the involved
insurance companies require of Welch?

Is it not true that CCEF purports to do biblical and
not psychological counseling? If so, how do they qualify
clients for payments? How much of the $500,000 in
counseling fees received annually by CCEF is from
insurance payments reimbursed to clients? We ask these
questions and raise the issue publicly, because Welch has
been unwilling to respond. We would appreciate help in
obtaining answers to our questions.